The capital of Cambodia

we stayed in the center of Phnom Phen at the laughing fat man hotel, which is literally ran by a laughing fat man. A cozy place in the middle of a pulsing city. Surrounded by bars and restaurants.

Phnom Penh made a big impression to us. If you walk around you see stunning temples, beautiful buildings, expensive cars and fancy hotels and restaurants. But around the corner of the kings palace or any other fancy building there are dozens of children begging for food and money. In the night you see them laying with their siblings on one little blanket in a dark corner of the street.

Restaurants are full with old western men in accompaniment of young Asian girls. Girls trying to escape poverty and build up a better life.

In all this poverty Cambodian people are always friendly and trying to please you. If you look back on their history, which is full with war and killing, it is just amazing that Cambodians are like they are.

The last war is still so recent and made such a big influence on the country we decided to find more out about it. We took a TukTuk to a place 20km away from Phnom Penh.

This place is called the killing fields. In the 70s the Khmer Rouge (a communist party) gained power and took over Cambodia. During their leadership the killed 20% of Cambodians population, which is more then 1,5 mio. They brought them to the place called the killing fields. Men, women and children were killed there in cruel ways and buried in mass graves. We got an audio tour and spent there 3 hours listing to the stories of survivors and explanations about the war. This time at the fields was so touching and heavy. It is just 30 years ago, so recent and so scary.

After a few days in Phnom Penh we have to move on to Siem Reap. Unfortunately Jeff wakes up sick on the day we left the city. A terrible bus ride through a beautiful country later we arrive in Siem Reap and were picked up by Rady. The director of a local English school.